Virtual Police Needed

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

I think alot energy is focused on the shiny new object when it comes to gaming, but what I would like to see for H5 Guardians (I would love to see it for MCC, but I’m sure it’s too late) is innovation to improve the quality of online play in terms of dealing w/ player behavior.

It’s a sad fact that, in games, like in life, a small number of people make it their solemn goal in life to ruin things for other people, and Halo players have been victimized by these people for so long that, in general, we just accept it as a part of online life. I would like to see this changed.

I’ve seen so much bad online player conduct that I think we need a virtual police algorithm similar to those used to prevent credit card fraud. This functionality would be able to detect, (in real time, during a game) and punish, for example, the following types of behavior:

  1. AFK/Quit outs
  2. Deranking
  3. Shooting your team mates until they are one shot (but of course not actually betraying so they don’t get booted)
  4. “playing” (i.e., screwing around at your base w/ your team mate)
  5. Aimbots and other forms of blatant cheating

These are just some ideas of what to scan for. For punishments, what I think you ought to do is have a “slop” bin within each playlist that these types of player get dumped into during matchmaking so they can all play together. After a sufficient number of games in the slop bin they get placed back in general matchmaking, and each offense thereafter lands them for longer periods of time in the slop bin.

For betrayers, I think after the algorithm detects a sufficient number of friendly fire “accidents”, bullet reflection turns on for the offending player, where any shots against their team mates don’t hurt their team mates any more, but instead are “reflected” onto themselves for the rest of that game. Afterwords they are placed in the slop bin.

In any case, these are just ideas, but I would like to see innovation in dealing w/ the slag of the online world.

2

> I think alot energy is focused on the shiny new object when it comes to gaming, but what I would like to see for H5 Guardians (I would love to see it for MCC, but I’m sure it’s too late) is innovation to improve the quality of online play in terms of dealing w/ player behavior.
>
> It’s a sad fact that, in games, like in life, a small number of people make it their solemn goal in life to ruin things for other people, and Halo players have been victimized by these people for so long that, in general, we just accept it as a part of online life. I would like to see this changed.

Just like in real life, there will be people who benifit at the misery of others, and also like real life, there are “criminals” that the “police” cannot catch successfully.

And like you said, the number of people like this is decently small. If people are a problem, just report them and move on.

> 1. AFK/Quit outs

Movement scans and stat trackers already help enforce this

> 2. Deranking

a well-designed ranking system can help negate this.

> 3. Shooting your team mates until they are one shot (but of course not actually betraying so they don’t get booted)

Teammate damage counters could help prevent this. But Halo is not a game where such a system is in place yet.

Also, this may not apply for H5/MCC, but disabling friendly fire is always an option.

> 4. “playing” (i.e., screwing around at your base w/ your team mate)

They are called video games for a reason. People can do what they want in a game, as long as they are having fun, and aren’t directly hurting anyone, it shouldn’t be a problem

Nonetheless, under my understanding, this kind of stuff doesn’t happen often enough, nor does it have a large enough effect on players for it to be a real problem.

> 5. Aimbots and other forms of blatant cheating

with my understanding, Xbox live is pretty efficient in rooting out those kinds of cheats, as they directly involve server-side code more than client-side.

generally if a blatant cheater using an aimbot or something similar, they’ll get banned pretty fast if not instantly.

> These are just some ideas of what to scan for. For punishments, what I think you ought to do is have a “slop” bin within each playlist that these types of player get dumped into during matchmaking so they can all play together. After a sufficient number of games in the slop bin they get placed back in general matchmaking, and each offense thereafter lands them for longer periods of time in the slop bin.

I think Kicks, XP/Level bans, and actual online bans will be good enough punishment. I don’t see how a “cheater’s/bad sport pool” will work in a game like Halo.

3

Really, having a Virtual Police function is pretty redundant with the existence of a Report button.

4

It’s interesting that both of you think existing policing systems work, because they don’t. Even with aimbots that require a modded XBOX I’ve seen, through a guys service record, that he played for a couple of days before being banned. It makes me think you haven’t played, e.g., either Halo 3 or 4 recently, as I can tell you I deal w/ these issues (particularly in H3) on a near daily basis. Halo 3, in particular, is jam packed w/ modders, derankers, betrayers, etc. (yes, I realize people think this is a dead game and that it isn’t closely monitored any more, but that’s my point - you shouldn’t need human monitoring, it should work in the background). And I’ve never seen reporting people do anything whatsoever. I’ve “avoided” people and then ended up in the same game with them three games later dealing w/ the same crap.

I also disagree w/ the notion that it’s a game and I should just have to put up w/ with whatever someone who isn’t playing by the rules of the game thinks is fun. In something like social slayer, I’m might be OK w/ that, but not in a ranked playlist.

The main point is that someone should be punished for bad in-game behavior as soon as possible, if not immediately in the case of team mate shooting, rather than through some accumulated reporting method. You will see lousy behavior change much quicker that way, and I shouldn’t have to be a victim of it.

5

> Even with aimbots that require a modded XBOX I’ve seen, through a guys service record, that he played for a couple of days before being banned.

Seeing how modders are getting better at overcoming the system, “a couple of days” is pretty fast.

> It makes me think you haven’t played, e.g., either Halo 3 or 4 recently, as I can tell you I deal w/ these issues (particularly in H3) on a <mark>near daily basis</mark>.

something sounds like you’re experiencing Lag.

> Halo 3, in particular, is jam packed w/ modders,

what kinds of “mods”?

> derankers, betrayers, etc. (yes, I realize people think this is a dead game and that it isn’t closely monitored any more, but that’s my point - you shouldn’t need human monitoring, it should work in the background). And I’ve never seen reporting people do anything whatsoever. I’ve “avoided” people and then ended up in the same game with them three games later dealing w/ the same crap.

even if Halo 3 is as flooded as you say it is, you have to realze that H3 is using older tech than newer Halos, which can make Modding it a bit easier. But i still doubt that it’s as bad as you say it is.

AFAIK, reporting people can cause the system to scan someone’s profile more thoroughly, but it won’t do so unless that person has been reported by multiple people during multiple different games.

And, yeah, the player rating system is kind of crap.

> I also disagree w/ the notion that it’s a game and I should just have to put up w/ with whatever someone who isn’t playing by the rules of the game thinks is fun. In something like social slayer, I’m might be OK w/ that, but not in a ranked playlist.

If you’re rank increases as you do good, i would expect that you’d see less of that “Playing around” type of stuff the more you play. Nonetheless, as i’ve said, it can’t be that frequent.

> The main point is that someone should be punished for bad in-game behavior as soon as possible, if not immediately in the case of team mate shooting, rather than through some accumulated reporting method. You will see lousy behavior change much quicker that way, and I shouldn’t have to be a victim of it.

This would create a huge margin of error, and you’d end up punishing people for the wrong reasons.

6

Sorry, but I don’t see this happening. It would take a ton to correctly implement and support. A report option works fine.

7

> 1. AFK/Quit outs
> 2. Deranking
> 3. Shooting your team mates until they are one shot (but of course not actually betraying so they don’t get booted)
> 4. “playing” (i.e., screwing around at your base w/ your team mate)
> 5. Aimbots and other forms of blatant cheating

Ranked matchmaking should have a vote kick system. It’s less likely to be abused in a competitive setting, where kicking someone harms your rank. This would solve the AFK issue, among other issues. Alternatively just make the game automatically kick afk players.

Quit outs shouldn’t really be punished much more than they already are. You quit, you lose more xp than if you simply lost. Counter Strike also bans you from ranked matchmaking for 30 minutes when you quit out, with that time increasing in frequency if you quit out from tons of games within a short span. That’s a good system.

Honestly it’s a problem inherent with every ranking system, and it’s near impossible to entirely police.

Would be alleviated with the aforementioned votekick. I like the idea of friendly fire doing equal, if not more, damage to yourself as well. If it did slightly more, people who drained their teammate’s shields would end up suiciding in the process. More radically, perhaps friendly fire doesn’t damage allies at all, it only damages yourself. This still discourages accidental friendly fire and encourages proper aim.

Doesn’t really matter in social.
In ranked, I proposed votekick.

Game needs some form of anti-cheat software, similar to VAC.
I would assume it already has one of these, and that system just isn’t working well enough.

8

> 1.
> Ranked matchmaking should have a vote kick system. It’s less likely to be abused in a competitive setting, where kicking someone harms your rank.

as long as it can be abused, it will be abused at some point.

whats to stop players from kicking a teammate they don’t like, or kicking an enemy that they think is “hacking” but is just simply better than them?

> Alternatively just make the game automatically kick afk players.

AFAIK it already does this.

> 5.
> Game needs some form of anti-cheat software, similar to VAC.
> I would assume it already has one of these, and that system just isn’t working well enough.

Xbox Live already has a built in Cheat Detection software. As I’ve seen, it’s pretty good at its job. I myself rarely come across blatant cheaters.

9

Frankie said for $1000 he’d come to your house and set up the Master Chief Collection for you (in lieu of a limited edition), so I assume for slightly more, we could pay him to go to the house of a deranker or a frequent quitter and give him a good slap.

10

> I think alot energy is focused on the shiny new object when it comes to gaming, but what I would like to see for H5 Guardians (I would love to see it for MCC, but I’m sure it’s too late) is innovation to improve the quality of online play in terms of dealing w/ player behavior.
>
> It’s a sad fact that, in games, like in life, a small number of people make it their solemn goal in life to ruin things for other people, and Halo players have been victimized by these people for so long that, in general, we just accept it as a part of online life. I would like to see this changed.
>
> I’ve seen so much bad online player conduct that I think we need a virtual police algorithm similar to those used to prevent credit card fraud. This functionality would be able to detect, (in real time, during a game) and punish, for example, the following types of behavior:
>
> 1. AFK/Quit outs
> 2. Deranking
> 3. Shooting your team mates until they are one shot (but of course not actually betraying so they don’t get booted)
> 4. “playing” (i.e., screwing around at your base w/ your team mate)
> 5. Aimbots and other forms of blatant cheating
>
> These are just some ideas of what to scan for. For punishments, what I think you ought to do is have a “slop” bin within each playlist that these types of player get dumped into during matchmaking so they can all play together. After a sufficient number of games in the slop bin they get placed back in general matchmaking, and each offense thereafter lands them for longer periods of time in the slop bin.
>
> For betrayers, I think after the algorithm detects a sufficient number of friendly fire “accidents”, bullet reflection turns on for the offending player, where any shots against their team mates don’t hurt their team mates any more, but instead are “reflected” onto themselves for the rest of that game. Afterwords they are placed in the slop bin.
>
> In any case, these are just ideas, but I would like to see innovation in dealing w/ the slag of the online world.

  1. Yes because unexpected power outages are deserving of punishment. A frequent quitter I can understand but some people lose connection for no real reason and sometimes on a regular basis.

  2. I would change this to people who shoot their team mates just to be jerks. Sometimes I shoot at a teammate who shot at me as a warning that if they continue to annoy me by shooting me I will not hesitate to get a betrayal and thus risk the betrayal boot that may or may not result from that.

11

Hmm…
I wouldn’t mind being paid to play Halo and look for people to bring the banhammer down on - maybe 3 dollars a swing? :wink:

Sometimes a human touch is best, at least as something to work alongside the current systems. And I have a feeling people wouldn’t do anything sketchy if there was a chance one of the people in their game was an “undercover cop”.
Then again, like in real life, we’d have to make sure that our “police” aren’t abusing their power and trying to ban people who trashed them in a game.

And I feel like if there’s a social playlist people should be allowed to mess around, but if it’s something more serious than you shouldn’t be playing too much.
I’m guilty of occasionally screwing around in Slayer and giving new players free kills and older ones free mongoose destruction commendations.

Few things light up my heart more than helping my fellow Spartans while being wiped from existence by giant red laser after hitting a sick jump.

12

> as long as it can be abused, it will be abused at some point.
>
> whats to stop players from kicking a teammate they don’t like, or kicking an enemy that they think is “hacking” but is just simply better than them?

Kicking your teammate in a heated match only puts you at a disadvantage. And it requires everyone on the team to vote yes in order to kick that person.

The way CSGO does it is you can also only kick people on your own team. Meaning you can’t kick “hackers” on the enemy team.

I’ve never seen it abused in my hundreds of hours with that game. I’ve seen it abused in 10v10 casual matches, but that’s a different story and it’s something I said to leave out of social.

I also forgot to mention CSGO gives you a comp ban if you kick people too much, to further prevent abuse of the system.

13

For some reason I got happy with images of banhammers swinging everywhere. Must be the inner-troll in me.